NCAA Football 14 - What is EA's marketing plan?

[KIDZER0918]

I have always been skeptical about people saying that madden gets more attention then NCAA but I think that this is the year that it is all coming to light for me. I have seen at least 3 marketing videos for madden for their "playbooks" accompanied by long and in depth blogs and other community feedback. NCAA has pushed out 2 videos and a blog here and there. What bugs me the most is the time frame. Madden has easily an extra month on NCAA when it comes to release but for some reason we are fed more information about madden then NCAA. Is it because NCAA is hiding stuff? I would love to see more game-play vids even if they were "canned" plays made for marketing, madden has made 3 video's showcasing game-play, tackles, and new running back moves. It seems that NCAA has only received an Infinity engine trailer, with some clips of the uniform menu. But at least we have daily Facebook questions asking who the first team we are going to play with in dynasty is, and begging us to like their status to spread word of mouth. That topic is normally discussed on forums and that is where i go normally go for that topic (UGA all day!!). Some people might argue that it is the difference in their budget that holds NCAA Back, and I have noticed that Lead Producer Ben Haumiller has been very visible this year off the top of my head he has done at least 2 one on one podcasts for operation sports and has been very informative. I would prefer more blogs chronicling the process week by week. With a month and a half till launch i would hope that more information would be available. I am going to get off my soap box for a few just wanted to share my thoughts and frustrations.

[Deuce]

Ya, I tend to agree with you. I'm holding out hope that a lot of time and effort was put into dynasty and this is where we'll see tons of info come out. I think most of us in the community don't pay a lot of attention to UT so this week's play book was mostly worthless for us. I don't see anything wrong with UT but I was for sure not excited about it. I just want gameplay and dynasty info!


Typed by thumbs.

[JBHuskers]

Good spot for a tease here. There are some good things in line. May or may not be mind blowing. That is going to be up to the individual, much like the value of Ultimate Team.

I think we all can agree marketing for both NCAA and Madden have been weird this year. Not sure if it is because of the focus shift to Gen4. Who knows.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, this year has been horrible for marketing. Last year we had hour-plus long webcasts with the guys for each playbook, multiple blogs released by EA, plus the stories from what seemed just about every gaming website in existence. This year, no webcasts, one, maybe two blogs tops from EA, and only a handful of stories from gaming websites. It's almost EA left marketing out of the budget this year.

[CLW]

Yeah, this year has been horrible for marketing. Last year we had hour-plus long webcasts with the guys for each playbook, multiple blogs released by EA, plus the stories from what seemed just about every gaming website in existence. This year, no webcasts, one, maybe two blogs tops from EA, and only a handful of stories from gaming websites. It's almost EA left marketing out of the budget this year.

Well they did just lay off a TON of people. I haven't seen Haumiller at all recently and he was "the guy" for most of that stuff but maybe his duties got realligned after people got layed off and EA restructred a number of its teams.

Also, I've never met Haumiller he seems like a nice guy and all but I don't think many people out there really "trusted" anything he said anymore.

[gschwendt]

Well they did just lay off a TON of people. I haven't seen Haumiller at all recently and he was "the guy" for most of that stuff but maybe his duties got realligned after people got layed off and EA restructred a number of its teams.

Also, I've never met Haumiller he seems like a nice guy and all but I don't think many people out there really "trusted" anything he said anymore.

Haumiller has been on OS' podcast twice... earlier for gameplay and yesterday for NUT. He was also video interviewed twice by Machinima. Aside from that, there hasn't been his typical chances to be out in public... normally he's a big part of the official podcasts, webcasts, pre-draft party, etc. and none of those have happened this year.

[Jayrah]

Yeah I'm certainly hoping that dynasty is big. Nice tease from JB. We still have to hear about the overhaul to recruiting that was mentioned a month and a half ago and I'm sure more will be done with the story line deal that Kirk and Brad go over.

[KIDZER0918]

at this point I know more about NHL than NCAA

[Rudy]

Marketing for this game is never going to bring me all the way back. Why should I trust these guys after so many years of disappointments? There is no reason for me to think that this year they will bring it all together and get it right. I will still read the blogs and I will still download the demo but unless they hit a HR I am going to pass again. I really do hope they hit it out of the park but those are very long odds. I feel that us old offline gamers have been ignored.

[Jayrah]

Marketing for this game is never going to bring me all the way back. Why should I trust these guys after so many years of disappointments? There is no reason for me to think that this year they will bring it all together and get it right. I will still read the blogs and I will still download the demo but unless they hit a HR I am going to pass again. I really do hope they hit it out of the park but those are very long odds. I feel that us old offline gamers have been ignored.

Valid but I'm not sure why. What are you looking for as an offline guy that doesn't automatically come with a lot of the dynasty and gameplay upgrades?

[Rudy]

Valid but I'm not sure why. What are you looking for as an offline guy that doesn't automatically come with a lot of the dynasty and gameplay upgrades?

I want the cpu AI to be able to run an offense that isn't a pro-style offense. I want to see them run the option well. I don't want to see lead footed/drop back passers running the option. It would annoy me greatly to watch gameplay videos last year of Aaron Murray running the option 2 or 3 straight plays. He shouldn't be running it at all! EA includes an option play for the QB on almost every playbook but that doesn't mean every team should run it! There is no link to calling plays and the personel on the field. They could have the game's best WR but the cpu makes no effort to get him the ball. Why not? Guys like Justin Blackmon got at least 100 yards receiving every game his last year of college but in EA's NCAA Football nothing was easier than keeping a star WR under 100 yards. You didn't even have to try. This poor AI has been around all gen as they have done almost nothing to improve cpu AI. At least in NCAA 06 the impact players made you respect and fear the cpu's great players. Not this gen. The AI is years behind because it's been ignored. The final games on the PS2 probably have as good an AI as there is today. But why care about that if the focus is on user vs user online?

The cpu is half-ass competent running a pro-style offense so I might as well stick to Madden if that's all they can run in NCAA. One day I really wish EA could prove me wrong with this rant. I honestly hope so but I'm tired of waiting. Good marketing could give me hope but I won't believe it by just reading it. The 120 ways to win slogan was a fail years ago - the cpu had only 1 way which was basic pro-style.

[Jayrah]

I want the cpu AI to be able to run an offense that isn't a pro-style offense. I want to see them run the option well. I don't want to see lead footed/drop back passers running the option. It would annoy me greatly to watch gameplay videos last year of Aaron Murray running the option 2 or 3 straight plays. He shouldn't be running it at all! EA includes an option play for the QB on almost every playbook but that doesn't mean every team should run it! There is no link to calling plays and the personel on the field. They could have the game's best WR but the cpu makes no effort to get him the ball. Why not? Guys like Justin Blackmon got at least 100 yards receiving every game his last year of college but in EA's NCAA Football nothing was easier than keeping a star WR under 100 yards. You didn't even have to try. This poor AI has been around all gen as they have done almost nothing to improve cpu AI. At least in NCAA 06 the impact players made you respect and fear the cpu's great players. Not this gen. The AI is years behind because it's been ignored. The final games on the PS2 probably have as good an AI as there is today. But why care about that if the focus is on user vs user online?

The cpu is half-ass competent running a pro-style offense so I might as well stick to Madden if that's all they can run in NCAA. One day I really wish EA could prove me wrong with this rant. I honestly hope so but I'm tired of waiting. Good marketing could give me hope but I won't believe it by just reading it. The 120 ways to win slogan was a fail years ago - the cpu had only 1 way which was basic pro-style.

Oh yeah I hear ya. Definitely a necessity for either online CPU or offline CPU games. They just need to fix this situation completely

[SCClassof93]

Marketing for this game is never going to bring me all the way back. Why should I trust these guys after so many years of disappointments? There is no reason for me to think that this year they will bring it all together and get it right. I will still read the blogs and I will still download the demo but unless they hit a HR I am going to pass again. I really do hope they hit it out of the park but those are very long odds. I feel that us old offline gamers have been ignored.

This! +1

I was looking at my trophies the other night after yet another TW14 crash and I saw where I got platinum on NCAA11, around 30% on 12 and 10% last year. My point? Nothing new or innovative in years. Poor cpu ai etc.